Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Polygyous male...an update

I could not stand to stay home another day so I went to check a few nests. Of course high on my list were the two nests being attended by one male. There are so many aspects of the behaviors observed that I could go on tangents about...first let me report that all six chicks are alive and doing fairly well. Chicks on one nest looked better today than on the other. Both nests have one chick which is lagging behind developmentally. Chicks on one nest had salt around their nares, which is an indication of dehydration. The other three did not. I saw the resident male three times at one nest and not at all at the other. He brought two fish to one nest and came flying in with a third fish but went to a tree to eat it himself. During his lunch, another male arrived and flew over and the resident male took off after him, carrying the fish. I did not see him return or deliver it to the nest.
I saw this visiting male three times. He is banded but I was not able to read his band. I am sure others have. I was a bit worried about the youngest chick at one nest...the other two larger chicks were dominant during the feeding, and the little guy seemed cut off on the far side of the nest. It was interesting to see the female trying to reach the small one and finally she backed up from the other two chicks, walked around them to get to the little guy and began to feed him. Sometimes females feed whoever lines up...but she intentionally moved to feed the little guy. The female was totally off the nest at the other site. She was gone for at least 55 minutes and I could not spot her anywhere. She finally returned to chicks with empty crops, as was hers, with no fish. Oddly enough at this nest also...the smallest chick with no feathers yet on its breast, was the only one with food in its crop! This may be related to the timing of my visits...if the little one gets fed last, he may appear to have the fullest crop later. But, clearly, the little ones are getting fed at both nests. I saw no serious aggression between the chicks, tho during a feeding at one nest, they were trying to grab bites of fish out of the beaks of the other chicks. At the other nest I did not see this...they waited patiently to be fed. So things are going surprisingly well, after a stretch of hot, humid weather. I still think the male is favoring one nest, but clearly attending to both. It is possible that one of the females is fishing also as she was wet this morning as she fed the chicks and she was gone a long time this afternoon. Wish I could sit there all day!

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